MAPLE RIDGE, B.C.—On the slim strip of grass outside the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre, a totem pole thunderbird shows its cedar wings to the river plain that meanders out to the Strait of Georgia and the Pacific.

HandoutTharmaradnam Arumaithurai’s Tiger name was Velu, and for more than seven years, he trained, smuggled arms, fought, and was wounded in battle until, disillusioned and tired of fighting, he made his way to India, where he heard about the smuggling ship

When the human smuggling ship MV Sun Sea appeared on those rainy waters more than three years ago, overwhelmed immigration officials bused the Sri Lankans on board to this prison, but they have since been released.

“Except me,” said Tharmaradnam Arumaithurai. A soft-spoken 40-year-old in red prison sweats, he is the last of the 492 Sun Sea migrants still in custody (with the exception of the ship’s owner, who faces criminal charges).

There is a good reason for that: Before sailing to Canada, he was a longtime member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, the rebel and terrorist group that fought a long, failed war for independence from Sri Lanka.

His Tiger name was Velu, and for more than seven years, he trained, smuggled arms, fought, and was wounded in battle until, disillusioned and tired of fighting, he made his way to India, where he heard about the smuggling ship.

The $20,000 fee his family paid was supposed to buy him a ticket to a new life, but instead he has spent the past 3-1/2 years playing handball in the prison yard, taking English classes and working in the tailor shop, sewing elastic waistbands into corrections uniforms. His 51st detention hearing was held Wednesday. As usual, he was ordered back to his prison in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.

Because of his past as a rebel fighter, which he initially tried to conceal, Canadian authorities intend to send him back to Sri Lanka. Upon his arrival in Colombo, he expects to be imprisoned. He fears he will also be tortured.

Before getting on a plane to an uncertain fate, however, he wanted to tell his story, so he invited a National Post reporter to visit him, and in January, he sat in a cinder block room opposite the maple leaf flag and a portrait of the Queen and spoke about his life.

He also agreed to be publicly identified. Until now, he has been referred to only as B-189, the file number assigned to him by immigration officials when he disembarked from the MV Sun Sea and asked for refuge.

HandoutThe $20,000 fee his family paid was supposed to buy him a ticket to a new life, but instead he has spent the past 3-1/2 years playing handball in the prison yard, taking English classes and working in the tailor shop at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre

Like the others on the Sun Sea, his immigration proceedings have been shrouded in secrecy. But he said there was no longer any need for anonymity. The Sri Lankan authorities are almost certainly already aware of him — especially after his name and rebel past mysteriously appeared on a Tamil-language news website earlier this month.

Even before the Sun Sea reached Vancouver Island on August 13, 2010, the government was concerned that former Tamil Tigers fighters might be on board. The Sri Lankan civil war had just ended and vanquished rebels wanted out.

While the rebel presence on the ship was arguably overstated at the time, Mr. Arumaithurai is living proof it was not incorrect. According to the latest figures released by the Immigration and Refugee Board, at least 11 of the Sun Sea migrants have been ordered deported for being members of a terrorist organization, namely the LTTE. Two of those have been found to have committed war crimes.

For Canada, the cases pose a dilemma: As former members of an armed faction that bombed trains and buses, assassinated two prime ministers, including Rajiv Gandhi of India, and recruited children to fight, they are hardly the kind of newcomers the government wants to welcome — particularly after the way the LTTE used Toronto as a base to finance its armed campaign.

But as ex-combatants, they risk being tortured upon their return to a country with a well-documented record of human rights abuses, especially against those suspected of being former Tamil militants. “If I am sent back, for sure, definitely, I will have problems there,” Mr. Arumaithurai said.

The son of a fisherman, he was nine when civil war broke out in the ex-British colony formerly known as Ceylon. The Tamil Tigers wanted independence for the island’s Tamil minority, and the government forces were determined to crush the “terrorists.”

As the fighting raged, his family was displaced from their home and moved repeatedly, staying with friends and relatives. In 1989, he said, Indian peacekeepers sent to the island to disarm the Tamil militant groups came to village where he was living.

Searching for Tigers, they rounded up the villagers and beat some of them. Among those taken was his uncle, who died in custody of kidney failure. “When the minority people are attacked, there will always be trouble,” he said.

After that, his friends, who would meet on the beach in the evenings, began talking about enlisting in the “movement.” They spoke to a recruiter and boarded a boat for a training camp. “So I joined with them.” He was 16.

Taken to an LTTE camp called Sencholai in the Manal Aru jungle, the young recruits did manual labor and, after a few months, were sent to another camp for basic training. Mr. Arumaithurai served as a sentry and then was assigned to cruise a 10-kilometre section of the Jaffna coast in a patrol boat.

He joined the elite Charles Anthony Brigade in 1991 and, following more training, fought in the jungle to repel a Sri Lanka Army offensive that aimed to rejoin the island’s north and south until, feverish with malaria, he was hospitalized.

Because he was a strong swimmer, he was chosen to take part in a 1992 raid that involved approaching the Palali army base by water. He was recruited next into the newly formed rebel naval wing, the Sea Tigers, led by a commander known as Colonel Soosai.

“Our main work was weapons smuggling,” he said. He would take a high-speed boat out to offload arms from freighters waiting offshore and deliver the cargo to the Jaffna lagoon, he said. He would also attack Sri Lankan navy ships, and during one such operation, he was shot in the thigh.

In 1996, he was working as a boat mechanic when a Sea Tiger vessel caught fire. Later, his commander rebuked him, saying that if the boat hadn’t been saved, Mr. Arumaithurai would have been executed for incompetence.

Troubled by the warning, he told Col. Soosai he wanted to leave the Tigers. He was already becoming disillusioned over the harsh treatment of cadres accused of wrongdoing. He said one was executed over sexual abuse allegations and another was imprisoned in a narrow pit.

He also disagreed with the suicide bombings of buses and trains. “I know it’s wrong,” he said, although he was less critical of the 1991 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The Indian forces had killed many Sri Lankans, he said. “Rajiv Gandhi is one soul. How many souls we lost among our people?”

Instead of letting him leave the Tigers, however, Col. Soosai punished him by assigning him to manual labor. He dug canals until, after 18 months, he slipped away from his guard and took a bus to another district.

For the next nine years, he lived quietly. He returned to his village, got married and fished. A ceasefire came into effect. But in 2003, his boat drifted too close to a Sri Lankan military base and the navy beat him with ropes. He stopped fishing after that.

Hoping to get to the United Kingdom, he left for Malaysia in 2004 but returned to help his family following the Boxing Day tsunami. By 2006, the ceasefire was unraveling and a return to fighting loomed. The Tigers were preparing to fight again.

At a rebel checkpoint, an LTTE fighter recognized him. “They asked me to rejoin,” he said. But he didn’t want to fight anymore. “I won’t say all the things they do are wrong,” he said of the rebels, “but I don’t like fighting the war.”

He fled to southern India and his family joined him, but he feared that if anyone saw the scars from the bullet that had passed through his leg, they would report him to police and he would be sent back to Sri Lanka. His worries multiplied after the army decimated the Tamil Tigers in 2009, killing all the top commanders, including Col. Soosai.

“The war was not in our favour at home, it was not in favor of Tamils and I could not stay in India, it was not permanent. Any time they could send us back. So I should go to the country where I could seek refuge, so I can have a peaceful life.”

He contacted an agent who said a ship was leaving, but first he had to return to Sri Lanka to get a visa for Thailand. When he arrived in Colombo, he said, he bribed an immigration officer by slipping money into his passport. After securing the Thai visa, he bribed his way out of the airport and flew to Bangkok, he said.

The smugglers wanted $25,000 for the journey. His family paid $20,000. The agent put him up in an apartment building along with the others waiting to be taken to the ship. In May, they were bused south and boarded a small boat that took them offshore to the Sun Sea.

Because he was accustomed to boats, the voyage did not bother him. “It was not that rough,” he said. The biggest problem was the shortage of food. As the ship approached the West Coast, it was intercepted by the RCMP and Canadian Navy.

At first, Arumaithurai tried to hide his past from Canadian immigration officers, but after three months, he admitted he had been a member of the LTTE — although he downplayed his role, describing himself only as a mechanic.

Based on his confession, the Immigration and Refugee Board ordered his deportation in March 2011. Canadian officials were unable to remove him, however, because he refused to sign papers to obtain a travel document from the Sri Lankan authorities.

One was eventually issued without his cooperation, however, and he was scheduled for removal. But facing imminent deportation, he revealed he had been far more deeply involved in the Tigers than he had acknowledged. His removal was subsequently delayed while the government reassessed the risks he might face in Sri Lanka.

On Jan. 9, 2014, Citizenship and Immigration Canada decided that, since he had left the rebels so long ago, the Sri Lankan authorities would not be interested in him, so he would not be at risk. While he might be detained upon his arrival, that was routine, CIC said.

He is worried, nonetheless. He thinks the Sri Lankans will want to press him for information about the Sea Tigers and the Sun Sea. Another ship passenger who returned, Sathyapavan Aseervatham, was killed on Sept. 6. Although he was hit by a truck, documents released by his lawyer indicate he was concerned for his safety.

I was punched and kicked in my face and body. I was beaten with plastic pipes and no food for many days

In an affidavit he signed before his death, Mr. Aseervatham wrote that upon arriving in Colombo from Canada, he was detained, questioned and tortured “very badly”. He said he was blindfolded, locked in a cage with his hands tied behind him and fed nothing but rice and water.

“I was punched and kicked in my face and body. I was beaten with plastic pipes and no food for many days,” wrote Mr. Aseervatham, who was wanted by the RCMP at the time of his death for his alleged role in organizing the human smuggling operation.

Said Mr. Arumaithurai: “Same thing will happen to me, that’s what I’m afraid of. They will beat me up and try to get more information about the LTTE … I can’t go and live peacefully there because I am ex-LTTE … they will come after me.”

He added, “I have not done anything against this country but I am facing this punishment.” He does not understand why he remains locked up when his fellow travellers have been freed — including an ex-rebel he said had executed captured army personnel. “That kind of person is released!”

He said that since leaving the Tigers in 1997, he had lived quietly and fathered three kids. “That’s the same life I want to continue,” he said. “I want to have a peaceful life, normal, civil life. I want to live here, me and my children. I want to have a life. That’s why I came here.”

He may not be here much longer. He was scheduled to be deported on Feb. 11. Two CBSA officers were to escort him to Colombo airport. Following a last appeal to the Federal Court on Feb. 4, he was granted a stay delaying his removal while he fights the government’s conclusion that he does not face any danger in Sri Lanka. His lawyer, Shepherd Moss, declined to comment because the case is before the court.

“Canadians welcome genuine visitors, immigrants, and refugees but have no tolerance for fraudsters, bogus asylum claimants, and criminals, including war criminals, abusing our generosity and risking the safety and security of the Canadian public,” Alexis Pavlich, press secretary to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, said Friday when asked about Mr. Arumaithurai’s case.

Despite his fears, he seemed resigned to deportation. “In my matter, everything has gone beyond my limit,” he said. “I have come to a conclusion, I have taken a decision: even if I am sent back to the country, whatever happens, I am ready for it.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/14/sun-sea/feed/0stdWhen the human smuggling ship MV Sun Sea appeared on those rainy waters more than three years ago, overwhelmed immigration officials bused the Sri Lankans on board to this prison, but they have since been released. Except oneHandoutHandoutMan allegedly behind Sun Sea smuggling operation feared he was being monitored by army before reported deathhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/09/man-allegedly-behind-sun-sea-smuggling-operation-feared-he-was-being-monitored-by-army-before-reported-death/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/09/man-allegedly-behind-sun-sea-smuggling-operation-feared-he-was-being-monitored-by-army-before-reported-death/#commentsWed, 09 Oct 2013 17:23:45 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=374741

A year before his death in Sri Lanka, a man wanted by the RCMP for his alleged role in the MV Sun Sea human smuggling operation wrote that he was being monitored by the army and feared for his life.

“I think they will kill me one day,” he wrote.

Sathyapavan Aseervatham was reportedly killed in northern Sri Lanka on Sept. 6 when he was hit by a truck, but documents released by his lawyer on Wednesday indicate he was concerned for his safety.

I think they will kill me one day

Mr. Aseervatham was one of 492 aboard the Sun Sea when it arrived off the B.C. coast in 2010. He was deported in July 2011 because he had a criminal record stemming from a gun smuggling conviction in Thailand.

Upon his return to Sri Lanka, he was detained for a year and questioned by the army, police and Terrorism Investigations Division. He later signed an affidavit saying he had been tortured and released only after his family paid a bribe to the army.

Gabriel Chand, his lawyer, said the affidavit was only supposed to be disclosed at private refugee hearings in Canada but shortly after Mr. Aseervatham wrote it he was summoned to Colombo by anti-terrorism police.

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When he met with the officers on Nov. 18, 2012, two Canada Border Services Agency officers were also present and asked him about the affidavit, said Mr. Chand, who said it was “unbelievable” the CBSA would share the document with Mr. Aseervatham’s alleged torturers.

In the affidavit, Mr. Aseervatham wrote that he had been tortured “very badly” while he was questioned about the Sun Sea. “I was punched and kicked in my face and body. I was beaten with plastic pipes and no food for many days,” he wrote.

“They blindfolded my eyes and I was locked in a small cage with my hands tied up behind my back and no clothes for many days. … Food was small rice and water was little so I prayed to God that I would see my parents again but I cried because I believe death was coming. I was taken from the cage only for beating and questions about persons on the ship.”

Following his release, he returned to Manipay, his hometown in Jaffna district. “I was forced to report to the army every week,” he wrote. “They are not permit me for passport and they check on me in my parents home. I have no money to flee anyways. I think they will kill me one day.”

Those familiar with the incident said he was hit and run over by a truck while riding his motorcycle near Manipay. “Everyone is convinced that he was murdered, but I don’t know,” Mr. Chand said. “It could have been an accident, too.”

Because I did not want more beating

The Sun Sea was a cargo ship purchased in Thailand by a Bangkok-based human smuggling ring that charged Sri Lankan migrants tens of thousands of dollars for passage to Canada. The crowded vessel sailed in June 2010, arriving off the coast of B.C. two months later.

Mr. Aseervatham was one of six alleged smugglers charged following an RCMP investigation. He was allegedly in charge of the ship’s food supplies, but he was deported before the charges were formally laid.

He wrote in his affidavit that he had told Sri Lankan authorities everything he knew about the ship. He also said that, under torture, he told “lies” about the ship’s links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. He said he signed a confession “because I did not want more beating.”

Sri Lanka’s three-decade armed conflict came to an end in May 2009, when government forces defeated the separatist rebels. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday he would not attend the upcoming Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Colombo due to “serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian standards during and after the civil war.”

A suspected organizer of the human smuggling operation that brought 492 asylum seekers to Canada three years ago aboard the MV Sun Sea has apparently been killed in northern Sri Lanka.

HandoutSathyapavan Aseervatham

Sathyapavan Aseervatham “died under tragic circumstances” on Sept. 6 near his hometown in Jaffna district, according to an obituary that appeared in Uthayan, a Tamil-language Sri Lankan newspaper.

Vancouver refugee lawyer Gabriel Chand, who had represented Mr. Aseervatham, confirmed his death. “He was killed a few weeks ago. I do not know what happened,” Mr. Chand told the National Post in an email Tuesday.

Mr. Aseervatham was one of six Sri Lankan and Canadian men charged following a police investigation into the Sun Sea smuggling operation. He was deported from Canada before the charges were laid and is wanted by the RCMP.

“I can confirm that there is an outstanding Canada-wide warrant for Sathyapavan Aseervatham and we have no reason to believe that he is deceased,” Sgt. Peter Thiessen, a spokesman for the RCMP’s E-Division in B.C., said Monday.

Toronto immigration consultant Nagendra Selliah said Mr. Aseervatham was riding his motorcycle when he was hit and run over by a truck that fled the scene. He said it was not unusual for government opponents to die in such a manner.

“This is very common, accidents happening and people who talk against the government, they are knocked down or their car slides or something like that and people die,” said Mr. Selliah, who had worked on Mr. Aseervatham’s case. “It’s very common in Sri Lanka.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday he would not attend the upcoming Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Colombo due to concerns about human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, including “allegations of extra judicial killings.”

The Sun Sea was purchased in Thailand by a Bangkok-based human smuggling ring that charged Sri Lankan migrants tens of thousands of dollars for passage to Canada. The crowded vessel sailed in June, 2010, arriving off the coast of B.C. two months later.

Mr. Aseervatham and his pregnant wife were among those on board. His Immigration and Refugee Board hearing was held behind closed doors but he was deported in 2011, probably because he had a criminal record stemming from a gun smuggling conviction in Thailand.

Upon returning to Sri Lanka, he was detained and tortured, Mr. Chand said. He was later released and returned to Manipay, the town in Sri Lanka’s northern peninsula where he was born. He died northeast of the town, his obituary said.

Of the six alleged smugglers, he was the only one not arrested by the RCMP. Canada does not have an extradition treaty with Sri Lanka. If convicted he had faced up to life imprisonment and $1-million in fines.

Word of Mr. Aseervatham’s apparent death has been circulating in Canada’s large Tamil community, raising concerns among other Sun Sea passengers that they could face a similar fate if they are returned to Sri Lanka.

The Sun Sea was the second human smuggling ship to arrive off the West Coast in less than a year. In October, 2009, 76 Sri Lankans followed a similar route across the Pacific. In response, the government passed anti-human smuggling legislation and federal security and immigration officers were sent abroad to stop future ships from sailing for Canada.

Canadian intelligence agencies have been paying closer attention to human smuggling since two ships carrying hundreds of Sri Lankan migrants arrived off the West Coast, according to a newly declassified report.

The arrival of the MV Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea in 2009 and 2010 “focused the Canadian intelligence community’s attention on human smuggling,” the report said, adding that maritime human smuggling was a “particular concern.”

The Top Secret report said Canada was “vulnerable to terrorist travel” and that the “potential for inbound travel to North America to support or participate in terrorist operations is a high priority threat to Canadian and allied national security.”

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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service assessment, dated March, 2013, and released under the Access to Information Act, shows how the agency has rationalized its increasing role in anti-human smuggling operations since the ships arrived.

“Illegal migration poses a range of threats to Canadian sovereignty, border security and security. The Service’s legal mandate requires attention to harm to Canadian security interests through its possible use by non-state terrorist organizations, state sponsors of terror and foreign intelligence services,” it said.

The Ocean Lady arrived off Vancouver Island in October, 2009, carrying 76 Sri Lankan migrants. According to the latest figures released this week by the Immigration and Refugee Board, only 27 of those claims have been accepted while 19 have been rejected. Four deportation orders have been issued.

The Sun Sea reached Canadian waters the following August with 492 people on board. So far just 117 of their refugee claims have been accepted, while 117 have been rejected. Eleven passengers have been found to be members of the Tamil Tigers rebels and are being deported for war crimes or belonging to an organization “engaging in terrorism.” Fourteen are being deported for human smuggling since they were members of the ship’s crew.

From Sri Lanka, they travelled to Bangkok, some through Singapore and Malaysia, accompanied by agents who bribed border officials. They were kept at the Sky Place hotel until a double-decker bus brought them south to the MV Sun Sea for the long voyage to Canada.

Once aboard, they quickly discovered the fee of up to $35,000 charged by the smuggling syndicate didn’t buy them much: A spot on a cramped deck and rations of food and water, distributed by an abusive crew that sometimes withheld provisions as punishment.

A newly declassified Canada Border Services Agency report obtained by the National Post has offered the first official overview of the Sun Sea human smuggling scheme. Titled “Sun Sea Human Smuggling Operation,” it is based on interviews with the passengers conducted by CBSA officers in British Columbia.

It examines the ship’s ownership, the crew’s “affiliations” with the Sri Lankan rebel group known as the LTTE, the smuggling agents involved, travel patterns, financial transactions and the awful conditions on the ship. Parts of the report were withheld for national security and privacy reasons.

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The report depicts a highly organized, multi-million-dollar operation involving agents who moved hundreds of migrants from Sri Lanka to the Gulf of Thailand and onto the crowded cargo vessel for a “horrible” voyage across the Pacific — one that for many proved pointless, since their refugee claims were rejected.

“The purpose of this report is to demonstrate that the arrival of the Sun Sea in Canadian waters on August 13, 2010, carrying a total of 492 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka is the result of an organized human smuggling operation, with probably affiliations with the LTTE,” begins the report, released to the Post under the Access to Information Act.

The report said the migrants said they had been living in parts of northern Sri Lanka under control of the LTTE, better known as the Tamil Tigers, separatist guerrillas who fought a lengthy civil war until falling to government forces in May, 2009. The migrants said they avoided joining the rebels by paying them money.

“From Colombo, flights were taken to three main countries: Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand. Many flew Cathay Pacific Airlines,” it said. Those who transited through Malaysia and Singapore were assisted by agents who helped them into Thailand, mostly by bus. “Other migrants crossed the border by car with agents who offered bribes to border officials.”

In Bangkok, they lived in hotels, notably the Sky Place, near Suvarnabhumi Airport, for between one and five months. “Some migrants report having to move to a different apartment building because their agents were afraid they would be ‘caught by immigration,’” the report said.

Brent Lewin for National Post A bed sits in a room at The Sky Place Srinakarin in Bangkok on Monday March 25, 2012.

Brent Lewin for National Post The sun sets over the swimming pool at The Sky Place Srinakarin in Bangkok on Monday March 25, 2012.

When the ship was ready, they took taxis to a double-decker bus, which brought them to the port town of Songkhla, where agents escorted them onto fishing trawlers for the two-day trip out to the Sun Sea, which spent the month of May circulating around the Gulf of Thailand.

“The majority of the migrants report being charged $20,000 to $35,000 CAN for their passage on the Sun Sea. Most of the migrants also report having provided agents with deposits amounting to approximately one-quarter to one-half the full price for the voyage; this money was mainly provided by family members in Sri Lanka through the sale of land and jewelry. Jewelry was mainly sold or loaned to banks.”

The smugglers were either paid in cash or asked that the money be wired to a bank account. The migrants said they did not know how they would pay their outstanding balance. Most arrived in Canada with less than $30 in their pockets. “Some migrants said they were assured that wealth would be achieved once they got to Canada.”

The crew of the Sun Sea numbered more than two dozen, according to a list provided in the report. They included three who shared the role of captain, a second-in-command, navigator, eight who worked in the engine room, cooks and one described as an “enforcer.” The agent who paid $150,000 for the ship was also on board, it said, adding the vessel did not sail until he had arrived.

While the passengers were crammed five or more into small cabins, or were forced to sleep outside on deck, the crew claimed “priority accommodation” and were seen as “prominent figures” who had “heightened status.” All the crew members were men.

Many of the migrants comment on the poor — some use words like ‘terrible,’ ‘horrible’ — conditions of their accommodations on the Sun Sea

“Many of the migrants comment on the poor — some use words like ‘terrible,’ ‘horrible’ — conditions of their accommodations on the Sun Sea,” the report said. “There is general agreement among the migrants that people were very angry about the conditions onboard and that the conditions they experienced were much worse than what they were promised by the agents.”

Passengers said food and water was scarce and crew members committed “abuse of power” by withholding provisions as punishment. The report did not explain why some passengers were punished. Even those so dehydrated they could not pass urine were denied water, it said. One man died during the crossing and several were hospitalized upon arrival in B.C.

Almost three years later, many have little to show for the effort. As of March 14, just 80 of the Sun Sea passengers had been accepted as refugees, while 82 had their claims rejected, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Another 26 had been ordered deported, either for being crew members or former LTTE rebels. On Friday, the Federal Court dismissed the appeals of two of those under deportation orders — the ship’s owner and a crew member who worked in the engine room.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/25/from-port-to-port-newly-declassified-document-shows-the-horrible-voyage-of-the-mv-sun-sea/feed/4stdThe Sky Place Srinakarin stands in Bangkok on Monday March 25, 2012. The Sun Sea refugees they lived in hotels, notably the Sky Place for between one and five months.Brent Lewin for National Post Brent Lewin for National Post Arrest warrant issued after Sun Sea migrant fails to show up for deportationhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/05/arrest-warrant-issued-after-sun-sea-migrant-fails-to-show-up-for-deportation/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/05/arrest-warrant-issued-after-sun-sea-migrant-fails-to-show-up-for-deportation/#commentsWed, 06 Mar 2013 03:14:25 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=276801

A migrant smuggled to Canada aboard the freighter MV Sun Sea is wanted on a nationwide arrest warrant after he failed to show up for his deportation three weeks ago, sources said Tuesday.

Although the Sri Lankan man’s refugee claim had been denied and his appeal to the courts had been rejected, the Canada Border Services Agency agreed to release him from custody five days before he was to be deported.

When he didn’t turn up for his scheduled removal, the CBSA issued an arrest warrant on Feb. 13. Although it seems likely he has gone into hiding, migrants facing deportation will sometimes leave Canada on their own without notifying the authorities.

The CBSA would not discuss the case, citing privacy considerations. Nor would it say whether other Sun Sea migrants were wanted on immigration warrants. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ spokeswoman also declined to comment on the matter.

Organized by a Sri Lankan smuggling syndicate that charged passengers hefty fees, the Sun Sea sailed from Thailand, arriving off the British Columbia coast in August 2010. All those on board made refugee claims. As of last month, 72 of the claims had been rejected while 65 had been accepted. Another 26 passengers have been ordered deported because they were members of the ship’s crew or former Tamil Tigers rebels.

The smuggling ship was one of two that arrived off Vancouver Island in the aftermath of a brutal civil war between Sri Lankan government forces and separatist rebels fighting for independence for the island’s ethnic Tamil minority.

During the final months of the war, the missing migrant was detained in a Sri Lankan government camp, where he said he was treated harshly and questioned about whether he had ties to the rebels, but he denied any involvement.

With the help of a smuggler, he fled in 2010 to Thailand and boarded the Sun Sea. The Immigration and Refugee Board rejected his claim on the grounds that neither the Sri Lanka Army nor the government suspected he had been a member of the rebels. The Federal Court of Canada denied his appeal in April 2012.

He then tried three times to delay his deportation but the CBSA refused, first in November, then in December and finally in February. “Based on the information provided, I am unable to conclude that removal to Sri Lanka at this time would expose the applicant to risk of death, extreme sanction or inhumane treatment,” the officer wrote.

On the day he was supposed to be deported, the Federal Court rejected his request for a stay of removal. His Toronto lawyer then made an emergency appeal to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, but the judge also dismissed the case.

“I can see no error in the CBSA officer’s extensive and careful reasons denying deferral of removal,” he wrote. “I find that he has not shown on a balance of probabilities that he will suffer irreparable harm and that the applicant does not meet the test for an injunction.”

The Sun Sea migrants have said they fled persecution in Sri Lanka, which has been widely criticized over its wartime conduct and for failing to take meaningful steps to address the longtime grievances of ethnic Tamils.

In a recent ruling, however, the Federal Court said the passengers of the Sun Sea had a “myriad of motives” for coming to Canada. “Some were human smugglers. Some may well have been terrorists. Some were garden-variety criminals who wanted to escape justice. Some had serious reason to fear persecution in Sri Lanka and some … were economic migrants.”

The Immigration & Refugee Board misinterpreted the law when it granted asylum to two Sri Lankans simply because they had traveled to Canada aboard the human smuggling ship MV Sun Sea, the Federal Court has ruled.

In a pair of decisions, the court weighed in on attempts by refugee lawyers to argue that, because the Sun Sea has been publicly linked to the Tamil Tigers rebels, its passengers faced persecution if Canada sent them back to Sri Lanka.

The latest cases involved two men who were not considered genuine refugees except for the fact they had been on board the Sun Sea. The refugee board ruled that made them members of a “social group” that faced persecution.

But this week, the court said it had used the wrong standard of proof to reach those decisions. It overturned both men’s asylum claims and sent the cases back for re-evaluation.

Citizenship & Immigration Canada declined to comment, saying it was reviewing the matter. The men were identified in the court rulings only as B323 and B472, both young ethnic Tamils.

The Sun Sea arrived off the British Columbia coast in August 2010, carrying 492 Sri Lankan migrants. The voyage had originated in Thailand and was organized by a smuggling syndicate that charged hefty fees.

Although those on board claimed to be fleeing persecution, Justice Sean Harrington said B472 “was found to be a liar,” while B323 was not credible and did not face a serious chance of mistreatment when he had lived in Sri Lanka.

“The Sun Sea passengers had a myriad of motives to come to Canada,” he wrote in his ruling.

“Some were human smugglers. Some may well have been terrorists. Some were garden-variety criminals who wanted to escape justice. Some had serious reason to fear persecution in Sri Lanka and some, like Mr. 472, were economic migrants.”

Nonetheless, the refugee board had ruled B472 and B323 were refugees under the convention by virtue of being passengers of the Sun Sea. Citizenship & Immigration Canada appealed the rulings. Last November, the Federal Court also overturned a similar case in the government’s favour.

“It may well be that B472 faces a serious risk of persecution were he to be returned to Sri Lanka, but not because of his membership in a particular social group, the Tamil passengers on the ship,” Justice Harrington wrote.

Before the latest court decisions, 65 of those found on the Sun Sea had been accepted as refugees, while 72 had been rejected. Another 26 had been ordered deported after they were found to have been ship’s crew or members of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Eighteen passengers who were on a second ship that reached B.C. waters in October 2009, carrying 76 Sri Lankans, had been accepted as refugees as of Feb. 13. Another 17 had their claims rejected and three had been ordered deported.

The ships arrived after a brutal civil war between government forces and separatist Tamil rebels in which an untold number of civilians died. Sri Lanka has been under mounting international pressure since then as evidence has surfaced implicating its forces in war crimes.

A report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch accused security forces of raping and sexually abusing suspected members and supporters of the Tamil Tiger rebels, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Both men and women reported being raped in detention by army, police and pro-government militias, it said.

“These are not just wartime atrocities but continue to the present, putting every Tamil man and woman arrested for suspected LTTE involvement at serious risk,” said Brad Adams, the rights group’s Asia director.

The Federal Court of Canada has overturned the refugee status granted a passenger aboard a smuggling ship linked to Tamil rebels, just as the refugee board extended protection on the same grounds to a Tamil passenger of a second smuggling ship, highlighting the difficulty in handling the two highly publicized mass arrivals.

The overturned decision involves one of 492 Sri Lankan Tamil migrants who arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea in 2010; the newly granted asylum decision involves one of the 76 aboard the MV Ocean Lady in 2009.

In both, the men had been accepted as refugees under claims that publicity connecting the ships to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam placed all passengers at risk in their homeland by mere association. The court’s rejection of the claim could impact other cases still pending.

In the Sun Sea case, the IRB had accepted the 26-year-old Tamil man as a refugee even though he was not believed to be involved with the LTTE; just being on the ship could lead to persecution, the board said.

The government appealed the decision to the Federal Court and Justice Paul Crampton accepted its objection.

“A group of people who have decided to travel to Canada on a particular ship,” is not “fundamental to a person’s basic humanity,” wrote Justice Crampton, and did not qualify as what are called “refugees sur place,” meaning those not refugees when they leave their homeland but become refugees through the circumstance of their case.

The claimant’s testimony, that he had previously been questioned by Sri Lankan officials about possible links to the LTTE and released, is evidence that the government knows he is not a hardcore member of the LTTE, the judge said.

His case was sent back to the IRB for a fresh hearing.

Justice Crampton made his decision Nov. 19 but it only disseminated publicly on Monday. The outcome contrasts with another IRB decision made Oct. 16 but released only last week.

If he were to return to Sri Lanka, he is afraid that … he would be subject to torture, death, and having his body thrown into the river

The second case involves a 24-year-old Tamil who arrived aboard the MV Ocean Lady, which officials identified as a rebel arms smuggling ship.

IRB adjudicator Trudy Shecter accepted him as a refugee on the same grounds that Justice Crampton rejected.

“If he were to return to Sri Lanka, he is afraid that the government would know or quickly learn, possibly from the Canadian government, that he travelled on the Ocean Lady and he would be subject to torture, death, and having his body thrown into the river,” her decision says.

She found no evidence he was involved with the LTTE.

“I find, however, that the claimant’s profile changed when he chose to board the Ocean Lady, a ship that has been suspected of carrying LTTE members into Canada,” she wrote.

The government is reviewing the IRB’s decision, said Alexis Pavlich, spokeswoman for Jason Kenney, Minister for Citizenship and Immigration.

Debra Brash/Times ColonistThe MV Ocean Lady in a 2009 file photo.

The seeming disconnect between the two cases highlights the difficulty in handling the many passengers found aboard the two boatloads of Tamils fleeing the conflict in Sri Lanka when they arrived in Canadian waters.

The Sun Sea arrived Aug. 13, 2010, carrying 380 men, 63 adult women and 49 children. As of last week, 50 have been accepted as refugees, 63 have had their claims rejected and 23 claims were withdrawn.

Deportation orders have been issued against 25; another 16 had admissibility hearings but were not ordered deported, with three non-deportation cases under appeal by the government.

Of the 25 people ordered deported, 14 were members of the ship’s crew and involved in people smuggling, according to the IRB.

Eleven were found to be members of a terrorist organization; two of those were also found to have committed war crimes. One man remains in immigration detention.

The Ocean Lady carried 76 males, one a minor, when it arrived Oct. 17, 2009. As of last week, 15 had been accepted as refugees and 15 have had their claims rejected. One claim was withdrawn. Three have been issued deportation orders.

Some on each ship also face criminal charges in B.C. for human smuggling — four from the Ocean Lady and six from the Sun Sea.

Canada’s human smuggling law has been struck down by the British Columbia Supreme Court, leaving two high-profile prosecutions in limbo with a judge’s advice that the federal government go back to the drawing board.

The decision comes during the defence of four men accused of ferrying dozens of Tamil migrants to B.C.’s west coast in fall 2009.

The ruling also has implications for a second prosecution in connection to a boat of migrants that arrived the following year and any future potential cases of human smuggling.

A publication ban was lifted Monday on the ruling issued Friday by Justice Arne Silverman, who found a section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act infringes on charter rights because it is “unnecessarily broad.”

He said the result could lead to the prosecution of people like humanitarian workers.

As the law stood, a human smuggler was defined as anyone who might “knowingly organize, induce, aid or abet” someone coming to Canada who does not have a visa, passport or other required documentation.

The judge declared section 117 of the act of no force or effect, saying federal politicians now needed to fill the legislative gap.

“This is not the court’s job, nor does it have the authority to choose what those priorities are or should be. This is the job of Parliament,” Silverman ruled.

A spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews referred request for comment to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

I’ve worked with refugees all my life and I’ve assisted them all my life. Am I an aider and abetter to smuggling? Because the section is so broad then perhaps I am

Prosecutor Peter LaPrairie said lawyers for the service were looking over the decision. LaPrairie was due back before the judge on Jan. 21 to discuss how the Crown would proceed.

Phil Rankin, a lawyer for one of the accused, said he was pleased with the ruling, while noting he anticipates it will be appealed until a decision is delivered by the highest court in the country.

“I’m not very clear on what it means to assist refugees. I’ve worked with refugees all my life and I’ve assisted them all my life. Am I an aider and abetter to smuggling? Because the section is so broad then perhaps I am.”

The Crown had been preparing to argue the four men should be found guilty of human smuggling related to the fall 2009 arrival of the MV Ocean Lady.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Wednesday for the accused: Francis Appulonappa, Hamalraj Handasamy, Jeyachandran Kanagarajah and Vignarajah Thevarajah.

But those proceedings were cancelled on Monday and the trial, set to begin later in the month, was adjourned.

LaPrairie noted the only charges against the men were laid under the section of the act the judge struck down. He couldn’t say if the Crown would appeal the decision.

A second trial for several people accused of human smuggling in the case of the second vessel, the MV Sun Sea, was set to begin after the Ocean Lady prosecutions had concluded.

“I don’t think this is going to mean that there is going to be flotillas coming to Canada,” Rankin said of the impact of the decision.

I think it just means this prosecution is not going ahead until the government tightens up their legislation

“Frankly, I think it just means this prosecution is not going ahead until the government tightens up their legislation and makes it constitutionally trustworthy.”

All of the accused remain out on bail and are living in Ontario.

Rankin said his client was happy when told of the decision, but he warned him not to celebrate just yet.

“I said ’Don’t start planning your future too quickly,” he said on Monday outside court. “They’re all in a limbo as to what happens to them.”

Two rusty vessels arrived in Pacific waters near Victoria one year apart, each carrying Tamils who claimed they were fleeing persecution in their homeland of Sri Lanka after a protracted civil war.

Among the 76 men who arrived on the Ocean Lady in fall 2009, 15 have been accepted as refugees, 15 have had their claims rejected, one claim has been withdrawn and three men have been issued deportation orders.

The MV Sun Sea that carried 492 Tamil migrants also had women and children aboard. Among them, 50 people have been accepted as refugees, 63 people have had their claims rejected and 23 claims have been withdrawn.

The arrival of the vessels and subsequent, lengthy detention of those aboard has prompted the Conservative government to pass tough new immigration laws aimed at preventing human smuggling. The government also buoyed international police with millions in funding to block illegal operations before they could sail to Canada.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/14/mv-ocean-lady-trial-in-limbo-after-b-c-s-top-court-strikes-down-unnecessarily-broad-human-smuggling-law/feed/0stdshipJonathan Hayward / The Canadian PressTaiwan arrests more than 40 people in human trafficking ring that sent migrants to Canada, Australiahttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/12/taiwan-arrests-more-than-40-people-in-human-trafficking-ring-that-sent-migrants-to-canada-australia/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/12/taiwan-arrests-more-than-40-people-in-human-trafficking-ring-that-sent-migrants-to-canada-australia/#commentsThu, 12 Jul 2012 13:48:51 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=193232

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Officials in Taiwan have arrested more than 40 people in a human trafficking ring that may have sent hundreds of Chinese nationals into Canada and Australia.

A report on the Taipei Times newspaper website says the lucrative operation was allegedly run by Chinese national Wang Cheng-wei, who was arrested in February.

Since Wang’s arrest, Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency reportedly cracked multiple cases of human smuggling by working with authorities in Canada and Australia.

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According to Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency, the smugglers would buy Chinese passports for people from Fujian Province and add their photos to the documents.

The report says the smugglers conducted more than 50 successful operations, smuggling one to four Chinese per trip.

Canada has launched an ambitious international effort to prevent smugglers from reaching its shores.

In 2009, the MV Ocean Lady brought 76 Tamil migrants to British Columbia, and the MV Sun Sea brought 492 a year later.

The Harper government has offered financial assistance to help foreign countries like Thailand to crack down on human smuggling rings.

The government has also introduced a tough new immigration bill that targets the gangs.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/12/taiwan-arrests-more-than-40-people-in-human-trafficking-ring-that-sent-migrants-to-canada-australia/feed/3stdA family is escorted off the MV Sun Sea after they and an estimated 490 suspected Tamil refugees arrived on a cargo ship at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in Colwood, British Columbia on Vancouver Island in 2010. Authorities intercepted and boarded the ship after it entered Canadian waters after sailing from Sri Lanka.Trial of Sun Sea human smuggling suspects to skip preliminary hearinghttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/27/trial-of-sun-sea-human-smuggling-suspects-to-skip-preliminary-hearing/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/27/trial-of-sun-sea-human-smuggling-suspects-to-skip-preliminary-hearing/#commentsWed, 27 Jun 2012 20:43:38 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=188515

The six suspects charged with organizing the MV Sun Sea human smuggling scheme will go directly to trial without a preliminary hearing, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada announced on Wednesday.

The Crown filed direct indictments against the two Canadians and four Sri Lankans accused of being behind the voyage that brought 492 refugee claimants to the British Columbia coast in August 2010.

Four of the six are in Canadian custody, most recently former Toronto convenience store owner Nadarajah Mahendran, who was arrested at Pearson airport on Monday after he disembarked from a flight from Germany.

A fifth suspect, Thayakaran Markandu, was arrested in Paris. The Canadian government has asked France to return him to Vancouver to stand trial. The final suspect, Sathyapavan Aseervatham, remains in Sri Lanka.

All have been charged with organizing illegal entry into Canada. They face up to life imprisonment and $1-million in fines if convicted. The Attorney General can order a direct indictment if it is deemed in the public interest.

A Canadian wanted by police for allegedly organizing the MV Sun Sea human smuggling operation has been arrested at Toronto’s Pearson airport after arriving on a flight from Germany.

The RCMP had been looking for Nadarajah Mahendran since June 6, when he and two others were charged in connection with smuggling 492 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to Canada from Southeast Asia in 2010.

The former Toronto convenience store owner and alleged alien smuggler had left Canada after being questioned by authorities. He traveled to Sri Lanka, his birthplace, but while he was away police issued a warrant for his arrest.

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He was taken into custody without incident on Monday morning after his flight landed in Toronto. It was unclear whether he had returned to Canada voluntarily. He was expected to be transferred to Vancouver.

“The plan is to bring him here,” said Sgt. Duncan Pound, an RCMP spokesman in B.C. He said all four of the Sun Sea suspects now in Canadian custody were expected to make a court appearance in Vancouver later this week.

A fifth suspect, Thayakaran Markandu, was arrested in Paris on March 29 and is awaiting extradition proceedings. The final suspect, Sathyapavan Aseervatham, returned to Sri Lanka following the arrival of the Sun Sea and is believed to be still there.

A man with a similar name to Mr. Aseervatham’s was the subject of a 2007 Amnesty International bulletin that said he and two others had been deported to Sri Lanka from Thailand after serving prison sentences for illegal firearms possession.

Mr. Mahendran is a 56-year-old Canadian citizen who owned a small shop in Toronto and traveled frequently to Asia. In 2010, he was arrested in Bangkok with food, motor oil and engine parts that police suspect were being stockpiled for the Sun Sea. He later returned to Canada, sold his home and moved to Ajax, Ont.

Another Sri Lankan-born Canadian, Thampeernayagam Rajaratnam, of Toronto, has also been charged. Lesly Jana Emmanual and Kunarobinson Christhurajah, the owner of the ship, have also been charged. All face up to life imprisonment and fines of $1-million if convicted.

A Canada Border Services Agency report said the passengers of the Sun Sea had identified about 45 smuggling agents in interviews. But after charging six suspects, the RCMP said it was winding down the investigation and did not expect to lay further charges.

The smugglers charged their human cargo fees of $20,000 to $30,000 for the illicit sea voyage to Canada. The operation was organized out of Bangkok and came ten months after another ship, the MV Ocean Lady, arrived off the B.C. coast carrying 76 Sri Lankans.

Almost two years after the Sun Sea’s arrival, only seven passengers have been accepted as refugees. Another seven have had their claims rejected, while 20 have been ordered deported over their involvement in human smuggling or links to the Tamil Tigers rebels.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, commended the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency for the arrest in a statement Monday.

TORONTO — The investigation into the human smuggling ring behind the MV Sun Sea, which brought 492 asylum seekers to Canada in 2010, has ended with charges against two Canadians and four Sri Lankans.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested a 55-year-old man in Ontario Tuesday and issued warrants for two more suspects, bringing to six the number of alleged people smugglers the Crown intends to prosecute over the Sun Sea.

Superintendent Derek Simmonds, head of the RCMP’s Federal Border Integrity Program in British Columbia, said in a statement Wednesday the “investigative phase” of the Sun Sea probe was winding down and he did not expect further charges.

“I am not able to provide details of the roles each of these six individuals played, but I can inform you they represent not only the leadership aboard the vessel, but also the organizers from Canada and internationally,” he said.

But only three are in Canadian custody: The ship’s owner, Kunarobinson Christhurajah; an alleged crew member, Lesly Jana Emmanuel; and Thampeernayagam Rajaratnam, a Canadian who lived in Markham, Ont.

A fourth suspect, Thayakaran Markandu, was picked up in Paris on March 29 after a brief international manhunt and Canada has requested his extradition. Police believe the remaining pair, Nadarajah Mahendran and Sathyapavan Aseervatham, are not in ­Canada.

HandoutThe RCMP have issued a warrant for Nadarajah Mahendran's arrest but his whereabouts are not currently known.

“Efforts to confirm their location and legal options to have them returned to Canada to face their charges will continue,” Supt. Simmonds said. All face possible sentences of life imprisonment and $1-million in fines if convicted.

The charges announced Wednesday are the first against Canadians implicated in the Sun Sea. Mr. Mahendran, 56, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and former owner of SRV Convenience Plus, a shop in the heart of Toronto’s Tamil-Canadian neighbourhood.

Neighbours said he imported South Asian clothing and travelled frequently. He was living in Ajax, Ont., last year when a National Post reporter asked him about his involvement with the Sun Sea. He declined to comment, as did Mr. Rajaratnam.

But documents show the Canadians were rounded up together by Royal Thai Police in Bangkok two years ago as part of an investigation into the Sun Sea smuggling operation.

At the time, Thai police, the RCMP and Australian Federal Police were investigating the ship, although it had not yet sailed. As part of that probe, Thai police searched an apartment building in Bangkok.

During the raid, they found food, supplies and engine parts they believed were being stockpiled for the voyage of the Sun Sea, including more than 500 litres of engine oil.

Mr. Mahendran, Mr. Rajaratnam, Mr. Christhurajah and Mr. Markandu were all arrested at the scene, fined and handed over to immigration police for deportation.

But the arrests did not stop the smuggling operation. Would-be refugees who had signed contracts promising to pay the smugglers tens of thousands of dollars were bused from hotels in Bangkok to southern Thailand, where they boarded fishing boats that ferried them to the Sun Sea.

After several months of loading in the Gulf of Thailand, the ship arrived off the west coast of Vancouver Island in August 2010. Their arrival prompted the Conservative government to draft controversial legislation to deter would-be refugees from paying for illicit passage to Canada by sea.

“Canada is a generous and compassionate country that welcomes newcomers, but Canadians are not naive. Canada will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system for financial gain through the despicable crime of migrant smuggling,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in a statement Wednesday.

Two years after the Sun Sea’s arrival, only seven of the passengers have been accepted as refugees. Another seven have had their claims rejected, while 20 have been ordered deported over their involvement in human smuggling or links to the Tamil Tigers rebels.

TORONTO — A Sri Lankan man who had long been linked to the massive MV Sun Sea human smuggling operation appeared in a Vancouver courtroom on Wednesday and was ordered to return June 5 for a bail hearing.

Kunarobinson Christhurajah, 32, was the owner of the Thai cargo ship that arrived off the West Coast in August 2010 carrying 492 Sri Lankan refugee claimants. He was arrested Monday along with Lesly Jana Emmanuel.

Both have been charged with human smuggling and face a possible life sentence and $1-million fine. A third alleged organizer, Thayakaran Markandu, was arrested in France on March 29 and extradition proceedings are underway.

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“This remains a very active investigation and we won’t rule out the potential for further charges,” said Supt. Derek Simmonds, head of the RCMP Federal Border Integrity Program in B.C. “The ultimate goal for the RCMP is to ensure the safety and security and well-being of Canadians; this investigation is important to help achieve this goal.”

Mr. Christhurajah had been identified as a suspect in the Sun Sea operation even before the ship left Southeast Asia. He was the director of the Sun & Rashiya Co., which was registered in Thailand in 2008 for “trading and agricultural products” and later purchased the Sun Sea, then named the Harin Panich 19.

As rumors of a possible human smuggling venture to Canada spread around Toronto and Bangkok in the first half of 2010, Thai, Canadian and Australian police launched a joint probe called Operation Hydra.

According to Royal Thai Police, investigators spotted Mr. Christhurajah in Bangkok on June 3, 2010 along with Mr. Markandu and two Canadians from the Toronto area, Nadarajah Mahendran and Thampeernayagam Rajaratnam.

Thai police raided an apartment building and arrested all four men. Police seized supplies and engine parts they believed were being stockpiled for the voyage of the Sun Sea, including more than 500 litres of engine lubricant oil.

The men were fined and handed over to immigration police for deportation but Mr. Christhurajah disappeared, according to Thai police. Exactly how he ended up in Canada is the subject of a publication ban.

Nineteen of the Sun Sea migrants have been ordered deported to date due to their past involvement in crime and terrorism, most recently a crew member and a former member of the Tamil Tigers rebel group.

VANCOUVER — The owner of a rusty freighter that landed in B.C. with 492 Tamil refugee claimants aboard two years ago has been charged with human smuggling.

Kunarobinson Christhurajah is accused of organizing, inducing and aiding the human smuggling operation that brought the Tamils by boat to British Columbia. Also charged is Lesly Jana Emmanuel, an alleged accomplice. Both were aboard when the vessel that was intercepted by Canadian authorities.

The freighter, the MV Sun Sea, landed off Victoria in August 2010 — one year after another boat, the MV Ocean Lady, arrived on the B.C. coast carrying 76 Tamil migrants.

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The court indictment against the pair alleges they planned their crimes between August 2009 and August 2010 in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand.

RCMP Sgt. Duncan Pound said Tuesday that police in Canada were dealing with a vast area as part of their investigation.

“It made it a challenging investigation for the RCMP,” he said. “Our federal investigators had to work with international partners, they had to travel. This wasn’t a case where we could gather all the evidence here in Canada.”

The two accused are expected to appear in a Vancouver provincial court on Wednesday.

The federal government has also launched an extradition request for a third man, Thayakaran Markandu, charged with the same crime and arrested in France.

Of the Sun Sea passengers thus far, six men remain in detention, 19 have been issued deportation orders, six have been accepted as refugees, another six have been rejected, one family has abandoned its claim and 18 more claims have been withdrawn.

Since the arrival of the Sun Sea and the Ocean Lady, the government launched an international effort to prevent smugglers from reaching the country’s shores, including a $12-million grant to Thailand to combat human smuggling rings.

“Canada opens its doors to those who work hard and play by the rules. However, we must crack down on those who seek to take advantage of our generosity, often for financial gain,” Julie Carmichael, spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said Tuesday.

Neither of the latest deportees was named in the heavily edited rulings released to the National Post, but one was found to have served in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam between 2005 and 2006, when he was in his mid-20s.

“The evidence does not support that these actions were taken under duress, that he was forced to complete them,” according to the ruling. “He could have fled the area when he was asked to attend training.”

Also facing deportation is a 39-year-old who had initially sought refuge in India. He returned to Sri Lanka in 2009 to look into starting a business but instead decided to leave the country permanently, the ruling said.

‘The evidence does not support that these actions were taken under duress, that he was forced to complete them’

In Colombo, he met a human smuggling organizer who was recruiting migrants for a sea voyage to Canada and made a down payment and signed a contract agreeing to pay the balance once the ship reached British Columbia.

When he got to Bangkok, he agreed to join the crew in exchange for a lower fare, the IRB said.

He and nine others boarded the ship on April 14, 2010, and for the next two months they sailed around the Gulf of Thailand while fishing vessels brought in supplies and migrants.

The passengers paid $5,000 to $10,000 in advance and pledged to pay 10 to 20 times that amount if the ship made it to Canada, the ruling said, adding the organizers of the smuggling operation had made millions in profits.

“He was aware that he and the other passengers paid enormous amounts of money, specifically to evade Canada’s requirements for passports and visas,” according to the ruling.

“He was aware that the voyage intended to bring migrants to Canada illegally.”

The Sun Sea was one of two human smuggling ships that sailed to Canada in 2009 and 2010, bringing close to 600 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who claimed they faced persecution in their home country.

Last month, the alleged organizer of the Sun Sea operation, Thayakaran Markandu, was arrested in France at the request of the RCMP. Four others were arrested in Toronto last year over their alleged roles in the MV Ocean Lady, which carried 76 Sri Lankans to Canada in October, 2009.

Refugee hearings for those found aboard the ships have been underway for several months. Canada’s acceptance rate for Sri Lankan refugees dropped to 57% last year from 91% in 2009, the year the country’s civil war ended.

The Conservatives have introduced legislation they say is needed to crack down on human smugglers. It is now before the immigration committee.

But opposition parties argue it is unnecessary and unfairly punishes refugee claimants.

TORONTO — The suspected organizer of the MV Sun Sea, the human smuggling ship that brought almost 500 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to Canada in 2010, was been arrested in France on the 29th of March, the RCMP confirmed Thursday.

Thayakaran Markandu was being held in custody by French authorities, police said, adding extradition proceedings were underway to bring him to Canada, where he could face life imprisonment and a $1-million fine.

The RCMP and Interpol had been looking for Mr. Markandu, a Sri Lankan citizen, since last month when he was charged over his alleged role in the Sun Sea operation, which was the work of smugglers based in Bangkok.

The National Post reported last year that Mr. Markandu had been arrested in Bangkok when the smuggling operation was underway, and that he had been carrying a French passport. Although he was caught with supplies for the ship, Thai authorities let him go with a fine.

MCpl Angela Abbey, Canadian Forces Combat CameraHundreds of passengers crowd the deck of MV Sun Sea after spotting the arrival of HMCS Winnipeg.

He is the first person to face charges over the Sun Sea. The RCMP said in a brief statement it would not provide more information because the investigation remained active and was before the courts.

“We would like to take this opportunity to commend the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Interpol and the French authorities for their efforts in apprehending Mr. Markandu,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in a joint statement.

“Canada is a generous and compassionate country that welcomes newcomers. But no Canadian thinks it’s acceptable to abuse our immigration system for financial gain through the despicable crime of human smuggling.”

The Sun Sea was intercepted off the coast of British Columbia in August 2010. On board, Canadian authorities found 492 Sri Lankans, all of whom have since claimed refugee status. While immigration officials have been dealing with the claims, the RCMP has been trying to identify the organizers behind the ship.

Mr. Markandu had been on the police radar since June 2010, when he was arrested at a Bangkok apartment building together with the owner of the Sun Sea and two Sri Lankan-Canadians from Toronto.

At the time, passengers were being moved from Bangkok to southern Thailand, where they were ferried to the ship in fishing boats. Thai, Canadian and Australian police were trying to track the operation, which led them to Mr. Markandu and the others.

During the raid, Thai police seized 529 litres of engine lubricant in dozens of plastic oil drums, sacks of food and engine parts. Police photographed Mr. Markandu posing in front of the supplies. He was using a French passport at the time that identified him as a native of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka.

But the arrests resulted in only charges of improper storage of materials and the men were released after paying a 10,000 Thai Baht fine, about $320. The RCMP would not confirm the man arrested in Bangkok was the same man they had charged.

Mr. Markandu is the fifth Sri Lankan to be charged with smuggling migrants to Canada by sea since the MV Ocean Lady arrived in October 2009 carrying 76 passengers and crew. Last June, four suspected organizers of the Ocean Lady were arrested around Toronto.

Refugee hearings for the migrants who traveled aboard the two ships are only now getting underway. Almost all are members of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority and claim they will face persecution at the hands of the Sri Lankan government, pro-government militias and Tamil rebels if they are sent home.

But while Canada has long taken in Sri Lankan refugees, since the end of the country’s civil war the acceptance rate has dropped to 57% from 76% in 2010 and 91% in 2009. Of the 568 migrants on the Sun Sea and Ocean Lady, only four had been accepted as refugees as of a month ago. Several others have been ordered deported due to alleged involvement with the Tamil Tigers rebels.

Jason Kenney might not the best immigration minister Canada has ever had (even if a recent National Post editorial suggested he is), but he’s certainly showing more guts than we came to expect from his Liberal predecessors. For many years, conventional wisdom held that to pursue touchy immigration or refugee reforms was to risk the ire of ethnic communities. Now Mr. Kenney pursues those reforms while also spearheading the Conservatives’ very successful outreach efforts in some of those same communities. That has to grind the Grits’ gears.

It would be wise to hold off on the parades and statues, however. Many of the changes Mr. Kenney champions are very complex works in progress — not least reforms to our refugee system. Stewart Bell’s front-page story in Thursday’s Post shows, partly, what he is up against. On Wednesday, 19 months after the MV Sun Sea arrived in British Columbia crammed with Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, the RCMP finally issued the first arrest warrant in connection to that human smuggling operation. That’s roughly how long it took for four alleged organizers of a previous refugee boat, the Sun Sea, to be arrested.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bell reported, “refugee hearings for the migrants who travelled aboard the two ships are only now getting underway.”

Blame whomever you want, these timelines are completely preposterous. And they are one of the two biggest reasons that so many asylum-seekers make for Canada. The other is their comparatively high chances of acceptance here, and we can debate whether Canada’s threshold for granting asylum is too low. But if a refugee claim was processed in, say, two months, instead of a year or two or five, the incentive for people with weak claims to give it a whirl would be massively reduced, as would the overall burden on the system. Refugee advocates disagree with Mr. Kenney’s approach on several fronts, but none oppose his desire to make the system quicker. This is Job One.

Amidst all these big problems, Mr. Kenney recently brought up a surprisingly little one: So-called “birth tourism,” in which very pregnant women come to Canada with the sole intent of giving birth to a Canadian baby. A Vancouver immigration lawyer suggested to the Post that this happens “a couple of hundred [times] each year.”

“With today’s inexpensive and rapid modern travel, someone can fly in for a couple of weeks, have a child and fly out, and otherwise never actually live in the country and have no intention of doing so, but establish a basis for the family to become Canadian permanent residents,” Mr. Kenney complained to the Post.

He’s right. Jus soli, the Latin term for citizenship based on soil rather than blood, is difficult to defend in cases like this. It makes very little sense for children to hold citizenships that their parents do not, and it can become a real humanitarian (and political) problem.

In 2007, a nine-year-old Canadian boy wound up in a Texas refugee detention centre much deplored by human rights advocates. He was born here while his Iranian parents awaited determination of their refugee claim, which failed, after which they were deported. The choice at hand, basically, was to prevent a Canadian child from exercising his rights — bad enough he had effectively been deported in the first place — or grant his parents de facto citizenship for no very good reason.

But that wasn’t a “passport baby” problem. It was very likely yet another achingly-slow-refugee-system problem. Consider that while Canada welcomes perhaps 200 birth tourists in a year, it hears roughly 25,000 refugee claims and rejects about 60% of them. On average, it takes 4.5 years for rejected claims to be finalized, and potentially much longer for the claimants to leave. Any children they have over that time will be Canadian. Humanitarian concerns aside, that’s just odd.

Jus soli makes for an interesting philosophical debate, and perhaps birth tourism is a small problem worth solving (though enforcement promises to be a headache). But if the real problem, as Mr. Kenney suggests, is Canadian children who have non-Canadian parents, then, like human smuggling, it is a problem best addressed by turbo-charging the refugee system. Make it so, Mr. Kenney. And keep your eye on the ball.

TORONTO — Two years ago, Royal Thai Police raided a Bangkok apartment building and arrested Thayakaran Markandu and three others suspected of amassing supplies for a human smuggling ship that was preparing to sail to Canada.

They were let off with a fine.

But on Wednesday, the RCMP issued an arrest warrant for a man with that same name, alleging he helped organize the MV Sun Sea, the cargo vessel that arrived off the British Columbia coast in August 2010 carrying 492 Sri Lankan asylum seekers.

While police would not confirm it was the same man, Mr. Markandu is the first suspect to be charged over the Sun Sea, a well-organized smuggling operation that was centred in Bangkok. He is accused of organizing entry into Canada. He is living abroad and has not been arrested.

“Obtaining enough evidence to have Mr. Markandu charged is an important step in holding those responsible for perpetrating this human smuggling scheme accountable,” said Superintendent Derek Simmonds, the officer in charge of the RCMP’s Federal Border Integrity Program in B.C.

He said a Canada-wide warrant had been issued but Mr. Markandu was not believed to be in the country. Once in custody, he will be extradited to Canada to stand trial, he said. “We are continuing to work with our international law enforcement partners to locate and arrest him.”

He could face life imprisonment and a $1-million fine if convicted.

The charge comes three weeks after the Conservative government introduced a controversial bill it says will make it easier to prosecute and jail human smugglers. Opposition parties oppose the bill, saying it punishes refugee claimants rather than smugglers. But with a majority of seats, the Tories can pass it into law without opposition support.

“Canada is a generous and compassionate country that welcomes newcomers,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said in a statement. “But no Canadian thinks it’s acceptable to abuse our immigration system for financial gain through the despicable crime of human smuggling.”

Since the Sun Sea smugglers began organizing their trip to Vancouver Island, charging up to tens of thousands of dollars for passage, Canadian police have been working in Southeast Asia to stop migrant ships before they head out to sea.

Even before the Sun Sea left Thailand for Canada, Mr. Markandu was apparently on the police radar. Royal Thai Police arrested a man by that name in a Bangkok apartment building along with the owner of the Sun Sea and two Sri Lankan-Canadians from Toronto.

MCpl Angela Abbey, Canadian Forces Combat CameraHundreds of passengers crowd the deck of MV Sun Sea after spotting the arrival of HMCS Winnipeg.

At the time, passengers were being moved from Bangkok to southern Thailand, where they were ferried to the ship in fishing boats. Thai, Canadian and Australian police were trying to track the operation, which led them to Mr. Markandu and the others.

During the raid, Thai police seized 529 litres of engine lubricant in dozens of plastic oil drums, sacks of food and engine parts. Police photographed Mr. Markandu posing in front of the supplies. He was using a French passport at the time that identified him as a native of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka.

But the arrests resulted in only charges of improper storage of materials and the men were released after paying a 10,000 Thai Baht fine, about $320. The Mounties would not confirm the man arrested in Bangkok was the same man they had charged.

Mr. Markandu is the fifth Sri Lankan to be charged with smuggling migrants to Canada by sea since the MV Ocean Lady arrived in October 2009 carrying 76 passengers and crew. Last June, four suspected organizers of the Ocean Lady were arrested around Toronto.

Refugee hearings for the migrants who travelled aboard the two ships are only now getting underway. Almost all are members of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority and claim they will face persecution at the hands of the Sri Lankan government, pro-government militias and Tamil rebels if they are sent home.

But while Canada has long taken in Sri Lankan refugees, since the end of the country’s civil war the acceptance rate has dropped to 57% from 76% in 2010 and 91% in 2009. Of the 568 migrants on the Sun Sea and Ocean Lady, only four had been accepted as refugees as of a month ago. Several others have been ordered deported because of alleged involvement with the Tamil Tigers rebels.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/07/mv-sun-sea-thayakaran-markandu/feed/0stdMarkandu Thayakaran, who travels on a French passport, was arrested in a Bangkok apartment building where he and three others were allegedly amassing supplies for the MV Sun Sea.A passport photo of smuggling ring suspect Thayakaran Narkandu.Hundreds of passengers crowd the deck of MV Sun Sea after spotting the arrival of HMCS Winnipeg. Few refugees recognized from Sun Sea, Ocean Ladyhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/06/few-refugees-recognized-from-sun-sea-ocean-lady/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/06/few-refugees-recognized-from-sun-sea-ocean-lady/#commentsTue, 07 Feb 2012 03:57:00 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=137752

TORONTO • The refugee claims from the nearly 600 Sri Lankans who paid smugglers to ferry them to Canada are moving slowly and face dwindling odds of success, new statistics show.

More than two years after the Ocean Lady arrived off Vancouver Island carrying 76 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, only one has been accepted as a refugee so far, according to newly released Immigration and Refugee Board figures. Another has been ordered deported and the remaining claims are pending.

Of the 492 Sri Lankans who arrived in 2010 aboard the MV Sun Sea, only three have been recognized as refugees while 13 claims have been withdrawn and five abandoned. The remainder of the cases are scheduled to be dealt with over the next few months.

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Together with an acceptance rate for Sri Lankan refugee claimants that plummeted to 57% last year, from 76% in 2010 and 91% in 2009, the figures suggest that the 568 boat people who arrived on Canada’s West Coast may face a tougher time than their countrymen who arrived earlier.

In a refugee hearing room in Toronto on Monday, a passenger on the Ocean Lady described how the village where he lived was initially controlled by Tamil Tigers rebels, who would visit his home to collect money from his father.

He said his female cousin joined the rebels and was killed, but that he had never been recruited.

After the Sri Lanka Army captured the village, troops based near his house would send him on errands, causing him to miss school, he said. “Sometimes they ask me to buy for them cigarettes,” testified the man, identified at the hearing only as OL-61.

He said he left home for three months and stayed with a friend who lived closer to school. But when he returned after exams, he said he was detained by a dozen soldiers. They blindfolded him with his shirt, bound his hands and took him away on foot.

“Many people were taken away like this and later on nobody knew what happened to them,” he said. One of the soldiers struck him in the forehead with the butt of a rifle, knocking him unconscious, he said. Showing his scar, he said that when he came to he was in a hole in the ground.

He was able to climb out after dark and, seeing no guards, made his way home, he said. Fearing for his life, he left for the capital, Colombo, and fled to Malaysia, remaining there until boarding the Ocean Lady for the journey to Canada. The boat arrived on Oct. 17, 2009 and was immediately seized and boarded by the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency.

“His account is fairly typical of what would have happened at that time,” his lawyer, David Yerzy, said after the hearing. “He was of the age that the army would perceive that, because of his ethnicity, he might be a rebel. So they would beat him up, they would bother him, they would harass him.”

While the man has been out of Sri Lanka for several years, he still fears the army and pro-government militias. “And then there’s the fear that if he goes back today, they’re going to look at him, they’re going to look at his age and they may ask him about who he was,” he said. “There should be some concern that people are still being tortured and arrested on suspicion.”

The case is scheduled to resume on April 19. The hearings are being held behind closed doors but the National Post applied to attend and was permitted access to Monday’s proceedings.

His claim comes as Canada is accepting considerably fewer Sri Lankan refugee claims than it has in more than two decades. Just over half of the 492 claims finalized last year were accepted, down from a high of 96% in 1989.

“All refugee protection claims referred to the IRB are reviewed on the evidence presented in that individual case and decided on its merits. Each case is unique,” said Anna Pape, a refugee board spokeswoman. “The statistics do not reflect the many factors — besides the alleged country of persecution — that members must consider before making a determination.”

A combination of factors is likely responsible for the drop, notably the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. But the federal government also appears to be paying closer attention, particularly to those cases that involve human smuggling. While the Canada Border Services Agency rarely intervenes in refugee cases, it has filed notice that it intends to intervene in every hearing involving those who were on board the Ocean Lady.

Stopping human smuggling ships became a government priority after the arrivals of the Ocean Lady and the Sun Sea. Both ships were organized by a Bangkok-based criminal ring. The Conservatives have drafted legislation to crack down on smugglers and their human cargo.

Last week, the BBC reported that more than 200 Sri Lankans who had paid to be smuggled to Canada by sea had been abandoned by their agent in Togo.

David Poopalapillai, the Canadian Tamil Congress spokesman, attributed the declining success rate of Sri Lankan refugee claims to the conclusion of the war and the notion that ethnic Tamils can find safe pockets in which to live within Sri Lanka.

But he said those migrants who came to Canada aboard smuggling ships will be looked upon with suspicion by government officials in Colombo if they are returned to the island. “If they go back, they are going to face a terrible time,” he said. “They still face a risk.”